For decades it has been fashionable to compare the conflict in Northern Ireland with the one between Israelis and Palestinians. By and large, this has been a facile comparison.
By
Anshel Pfeffer
|
Jun.28, 2012 | 6:37 PM
Martin McGuiness, the deputy First Minister of Northern
Ireland and a former leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army
(IRA), a group that waged a terror campaign against the British
government, its symbols of state and its citizens, shook hands yesterday
with Queen Elizabeth. Twice.
It was more than a symbolic gesture. The Queen was shaking the hand of
the man who was allegedly the chief of staff of the IRA's Army Council
in the years it planned hundreds of operations, including the bombing,
which murdered her favorite cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979 and
the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, which killed four soldiers and seven horses
of a royal Guards regiment. She was doing so, firstly, because the Queen
doesn't get a say in who she shakes hands with - her government decides
that. Secondly, and more importantly, the meeting took place because
McGuiness, who spent most of his grown life denying the Queen's
sovereignty over the province, is now a political leader, whose power
emanates chiefly from London and Her Majesty's Government.
Some Republicans have attacked McGuiness for being a traitor to the
cause; after all, his movement, Sinn Fein, still believes the six
counties of Ulster must one day be reunited with the Republic of
Ireland. McGuiness and four other Sinn Fein politicians are elected
members of the parliament in London, but have never taken their seats
there and remained absent from all its debates and votes. Last year,
Sinn Fein members did not attend a reception for the Queen during her
historic visit to Dublin. But the boycott seems to have harmed the party
during the last Irish presidential elections. Most observers have
interpreted yesterday's meeting as an attempt by McGuiness at damage
control.
Fourteen years after the Good Friday agreement that ended "The
Troubles" in Northern Ireland, the McGuiness royal handshake seems to
seal the realization, for now, that the Republican mainstream is
prepared to focus on its attempts to become the major political force in
Ireland, north and south of the border. But that "for now" could be
crucial in the future. There is still a clear sectarian divide between
the Protestants and Catholics. While the large majority of Northern
Irelanders are happy, according to polls, with the agreement that
granted them a large degree of self-governance, demography is slowly
changing the balance in the province and a generation from now, the
Catholics will be a clear majority.
McGuiness' contemporaries decommissioned their "Army" when they
realized that an armed struggle had no chance of forcing Britain out.
Their grandchildren may feel they have a better chance against a weaker
central government in London and reconsider strategy. But for now, there
is peace in the land.
For decades it has been fashionable to compare between the conflict in
Northern Ireland and the one between Israelis and Palestinians. By and
large, this has been a facile comparison, useful mainly for gaining
funding for "fact-finding" missions and joint seminars. It is true, both
are territorial disputes with religious and ethnical undertones, in
which both sides have often resorted to extreme violence. That's where
the comparisons end.
And of course, since 1998, there has been peace, even if incomplete, in
Northern Ireland. We are still waiting for peace to break out in this
region. American Senator George Mitchell who played a pivotal role in
the Good Friday process gave up as the Obama administration's peace
envoy after only sixteen months.
In some ways, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its current form does
slightly resemble the Northern Ireland situation. For over five years
there has been a lull in the fighting around the West Bank, thanks to
cooperation between the security services of both sides and the refugee
camps in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon have not served as staging-areas for
cross-borders raids into Israel for decades. And although Hamas, the
Islamic Jihad and other smaller groups in the Gaza Strip remain
implacable enemies and still fire off missiles, to which Israel responds
with aerial attacks, by and large, the standoff since Operation Cast
Lead three and a half years ago has achieved a degree of stability. But
all this is extremely temporary, while we sit on the powder-keg that
could blow up into a third Intifada at nearly any moment. But we are no
closer to an officially recognized peace deal, while the Good Friday
agreement has lasted so far fourteen years and yesterday's handshake
only reaffirmed it.
